1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improved biopsy instrument, and more particularly to a biopsy instrument which makes a narrow diamond-shaped incision which permits the removal of a sample of tissue, most often skin tissue and permits the incision to be more easily stitched or sutured closed leaving a scar that is superior cosmetically.
There are a number of instruments used to take tissue specimen from skin tissue. Most of the instruments use a circular cutting edge that is pushed into the surface of the skin and rotated to cut out a circular specimen of tissue. After the specimen is lifted out of the surface of the skin, a circular lesion or hole remains that is difficult to stitch or suture closed without leaving a scar.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are a number of biopsy instruments in the prior art. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,210,145, a square surgical cutter is provided for use with removing scalp plugs in hair transplanting operations which will be unsuitable for biopsy sample tissues. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,818,852, there is provided a surgical instrument which is spring-loaded and contains a circular cutting device for removing tissue samples. Other patents, such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,515,128 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,512,519 provide skin biopsy punches which produce circular lesions and U.S. Pat. No. 3,353,531 provides an instrument with a specimen lifting means. However, these patents still leave lesions which are difficult to close.